Nostalgia fuelled rant..

[punterminator]

I really dunno why I'm posting this, I'm aware my opinion is probably about as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit and as with anything inciteful that ever lands here it will gradually be bumped down by the children's latest "look at me look at me. me me me" thread. However, for what it's worth and in the interests of posterity if nothing else, here it is.

So, I spent an interesting day on EI today. I, as is my wont from time to time on a lazy hangover shrouded Sunday, typed my handle into the forum search box and spent a few hours reading old threads I was involved in from "back in the day". The heady days before Westside (Mark I) started self-medicating and could occasionally stumple upon a coherent sentence. The two of us actually had quite a fun reparte going where I would say something pithy and dry to him, often in response to his weekly "right I'm off" thread and he would take a collection of words he found somewhere and throw them at the screen and whatever stuck would be his response. Heady days indeed!

Now, I have never been the most prolific of posters here. I have many interests both real and virtual of which escorting is only one and I have other outlets to exercise those other interests. I realise that others don't and that this site is their virtual-hub and that's cool too, I would suggest unhealthy perhaps but who am I to judge.

It was quite interesting though to watch the evolution of this site from the early days when the "other site" was actually a contender. I unearthed a few threads where I vehemently defended Patricia (and her sidekick Sarah) from attacks by wind up merchants (Link: example) simply because this was a time that Patricia would genuinely engage with the community. Get involved in discussions and listen to feedback from us (let's not forget, we are ultimately the revenue source for this entire operation).

But then the sadness kicked in as I saw this engagement change to a dismissal and eventually just a complete disengagement (Link: case in point, 3 years on and nada)

Along with some seriously questionable decisions, complete inaction over the agency/independent issue culminating in the utter debacle that was the community mods decision (I mean you take a textbook case of Aspergers syndrome (with, I suspect a few other diagnosed conditions) along with a textbook case of OCD and proven faker of IMs and make them responsible for the content of the boards? The mind boggles.

Looking over that period you can pinpoint with microscopic precision the slide from useful, lively and inciteful escort focused hub to the bum-slapping-circle-jerking-brown-nosing nausea fest it is today. Reading posts from this period it is amazing the amount of Posts showing up with "Banned User" under their name as the mods flexed their new muscles and gloried in their new powers. Gods among men, masters of all they surveyed. Completely arbitrary decimation of threads because some mod took umbrage with some content which we were never privy to. Questions dismissed with a "It's not up for discussion". Threads that would once have gone box office were left to wither and die as the erudite and inciteful posters who would normally fuel these had been banned (ninebythree) or just given up (mailman). I missed all this as I had lost interest in the place but if anyone has actually read down this far and would care to give me the synopsis of this incident I would be grateful (the whos the whys the hows, I really can't fathom why he would be banned, did he hurt QPH's feelings?)).

Anyway, I had a lot more to say but I don't think I will. Rather I'll just sit back and watch the tumbleweeds blow in and take root in that rarest of rare thing, a post made with a bit of thought and effort. Shed a tear as it sinks further and further into database obscurity as the latest 100 page behemoth keepy-uppy cringe-fest thread that the schoolyard has decided is the next craze. What's your favourite Pokemon perhaps? I had a thought today, and tried to quantify the improvement in content and quality here if you were to take a thread like "The last person to post wins" or "Drop one keep one" and then, anyone who posted after, let's say, page 3 of the thread was perma-banned never to return (or given their own sandboxed forum - let's call it "The Kindergarden"). It's an interesting thought I think...

As I said, I was never the most prolific poster here, but I've been here a while, longer than most, shorter than some and these are my musings on the evolution of the board and my sadness at an opportunity missed.

Over and out..
Content in the knowledge that at the very least, I hold a majority of one and, although it is a blindingly obvious rookie mistake to give the children the keys to the school, somewhat proud that regardless of whether I'm right or wrong, I said that this would come to pass and it has.

Just one last addendum. This is all aimed at the forum. Let the record state that the site itself (despite the fact that her "tech" team appeared to have learned web dev from Westie's stupider uglier brother) is in my opinion world class. Patricia has done a great job here, yes there are a lot of trivial errors, lazy coding and glaring inconsistencies which she obviously has no interest in addressing, but still, for it's domain audience this site is up there with the best. I hope you realise this paragraph comes from two of my passions, software architecture and beautiful women. I'm not trying to insult anyone it just pains me to see all the cracks in what should be a beautiful marriage..